These bizarre fictions: Thought-experiments, our psychology and our selves

Philosophical Papers 35 (1):29-54 (2006)
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Abstract

Philosophers have traditionally used thought-experiments in their endeavours to find a satisfactory account of the self and personal identity. Yet there are considerations from empirical psychology as well as related ones from philosophy itself that appear to completely undermine the method of thought-experiment. This paper focuses on both sets of considerations and attempts a defence of the method.

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10.1080/05568640609485171

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Simon Beck
University of the Western Cape

Citations of this work

Thought Experiments.Yiftach J. H. Fehige & James R. Brown - 2010 - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy 25 (1):135-142.
Transplant Thought-Experiments: Two costly mistakes in discounting them.Simon Beck - 2014 - South African Journal of Philosophy 33 (2):189-199.
Imagination, Thought Experiments, and Personal Identity.Michael Omoge - 2023 - Croatian Journal of Philosophy 23 (67):69-88.
Reconsidering a transplant: A response to Wagner.Simon Beck - 2016 - South African Journal of Philosophy 35 (2):132-140.
Madness as method: on Locke’s thought experiments about personal identity.Kathryn Tabb - 2018 - British Journal for the History of Philosophy 26 (5):871-889.

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References found in this work

Reasons and Persons.Derek Parfit - 1984 - Oxford, GB: Oxford University Press.
An essay concerning human understanding.John Locke - 1689 - New York: Oxford University Press. Edited by Pauline Phemister.
The Human Animal: Personal Identity Without Psychology.Eric Todd Olson - 1997 - New York, US: Oxford University Press.

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